Nakodar crash: Truck driver blames van driver

The driver of the truck which collided head-on with a school van, killing 13 children on Monday said that van driver's ignorance of basic traffic rules led to the collision.

Jagjit Singh, a resident of Kadianna village, near Dharamkot in Moga district, told HT at Nakodar city police station that the van driver tried to overtake a speeding bus coming from Jalandhar side and failed to apply brakes to let the bus pass, which led to the school van overturn and collide with his truck. He claimed that he was driving the truck at 40 km/hr and had moved the vehicle to the road-berm, when he saw the attempted overtaking that turned fatal.

Jagjit Singh's statement corroborates the parent's allegations and complaints of speeding by the van driver. Jagjit Singh has been arrested under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC. On why were such stringent sections were invoked against the driver, Nakodar city SHO Subash Bath that the police wanted to assuage public fury and anger over the incident.

Nakodar DSP HS Hundal said that truck driver had been remanded to police custody and he would be interrogated and there were chances that the case would also be reviewed.